Harrison resident Jacob Wheeler moved up from fifth to first Saturday in the second day of the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by Dick's Sporting Goods. Billed as "the Super Bowl of Bass Fishing," the Classic is based this year in Knoxville, and Wheeler's five-fish limit - all smallmouth - totaling 17 pounds, 11 ounces gave him a total of 32-6. "If you would have told me at the start of the tournament that eight of my 10 fish so far would be smallmouth, I would have said there's no way," Wheeler said in a B.A.S.S release. "It's been so hard to catch a smallmouth - even a nonkeeper. That is not something I thought I had dialed in at all." Mark Daniels Jr. of Tuskegee, Alabama, was second at 31-14. First-day leader Ott DeFoe of Blaine, Tennessee, was fourth at 30-5, and Spring City's Wesley Strader zoomed up from 17th to sixth at 28-0.
Softball
» The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga lost 8-2 to Seton Hall and 5-1 to North Dakota State University on Saturday at the USF Under Armour Invitational in Clearwater, Florida. That left the Mocs at 20-7 for the season and Frank Reed at 1,100 wins for his college coaching career. He's 624-418 with UTC after going 476-86 at Chattanooga State. Devan Brown was 2-for-3 with a double and Halie Williamson was 2-for-3 with an RBI against Seton Hall, and Brown was 2-for-3 again while Aly Walker was 2-for-3 with an RBI against NDSU, which scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Baseball
» No. 14 Bryan College won its NAIA Appalachian Athletic Conference showdown series against No. 2 Tennessee Wesleyan with a 10-4 victory in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader, but the visiting Bulldogs (21-6, 4-4) won the series finale 6-2 behind the three-hit, 10-strikeout pitching of Jack Granath and Irving Martin. Alex Flock batted in three runs and Adrian Marquez and Max Draijer each was 2-for-3, scoring two runs and one, for TWU in that game. Draijer was 2-for-4 with an RBI and Tyler Reichenborn also had two hits in the loss, when Bryan (18-8, 6-3) got a 3-for-5 game with two RBIs from Gabe Howell and two RBIs also from Wade Weinburger and Marcus Catalano. Catalano and David Scoggins homered.
» Cleveland State lost 5-1 to Motlow State but then rallied for a 7-4 win over the Bucks in their TCCAA doubleheader. Rhett Baldwin homered and pitcher Ryan Inches struck out 12 in the loss for the Cougars (10-9, 4-3), who overcame a 4-1 deficit in the series finale with three runs in each of the fifth and sixth innings. Tucker Mendenhall was 4-for-4 and scored three runs in the win, and Baldwin and Andrew Carpenter each was 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Winning pitcher Ethan Walls gave up two earned runs in six innings.
» Covenant College won 19-7 and lost 5-3 to visiting Berea in USA South play. Andrew Cline pitched all eight innings in the win for the Scots (9-9, 4-4), and Tommy Easley was 3-for-5 with a homer and five RBIs. Brooks DuBose was 3-for-5 with a triple, two RBIs and three runs, and Tyler Moore with a triple and Alex Gonzalez with a double each was 3-for-4 with two RBIs and combined for five runs. Ken Alexander drove in three and scored two. In Covenant's loss, John Mitchell had two RBIs and Brett Kernodle was 2-for-4 and scored a run.
» After losing 7-3 to Oglethorpe, Sewanee pulled out a 1-0 victory in 10 innings for its first Southern Athletic Association win of the season. Riley Brandvold tripled and scored on a wild pitch, after two outs alternating with intentional walks, and Tigers pitchers Dalton Buckingham, Lucas DeSantis and Danny McDonnell (1-0) kept the Stormy Petrels from scoring despite 10 hits and four walks. Trey Akins was 2-for-5 with an RBI for the Tigers (13-6, 1-4) in the first game.
Basketball
» Three Bryan College players - Karli Combs and Deandra Luna from the Appalachian Athletic Conference champion Lady Lions and EJ Bush from the men's team - received NAIA Division II All-America honorable mention for the 2018-19 season. Five others were recognized as NAIA Scholar-Athletes. That honor requires at least junior academic status and a cumulative GPA of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale, along with Hannah Troutt and Hunter Simpson from Tennessee Wesleyan. Bryan's Scholar-Athletes included repeat honorees To'Nesha Allison and Amber Levi, joined by Keniesha Love, Jonathan Hostetler and Austin Douglas.